Tuesday 03-12-13

Here is a follow up to Mondays post on the Near Earth Objects

 

 Comet Pan-STARRS making closest approach ever of Earth

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/21573137/four-asteroids-buzz-earth-in-single-week#ixzz2NGawU8fD 

New wave of 'superbugs' poses dire threat, says chief medical officer

Warning over rising death toll as antibiotics fail to tackle rising incidence of 'gram negative' bacterial diseases

 

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria with the potential to cause untreatable infections pose "a catastrophic threat" to the population, England's chief medical officer warns in a report calling for urgent action worldwide.
If tough measures are not taken to restrict the use of antibiotics and no new ones are discovered, said Dame Sally Davies, "we will find ourselves in a health system not dissimilar to the early 19th century at some point".
While antibiotics are failing, new bacterial diseases are on the rise. Although the "superbugs" MRSA and C difficile have been reduced to low numbers in hospitals, there has been an alarming increase in other types of bacteria including new strains of E coli and Klebsiella, which causes pneumonia.
These so-called "gram negative" bacteria, which are found in the gut instead of on the skin, are highly dangerous to older and frailer people and few antibiotics remain effective against drug-resistant strains.
As many as 5,000 patients die each year in the UK of gram negative sepsis – where the bacterium gets into the bloodstream – and in half the cases the bacterium is resistant to drugs.
"Antimicrobial resistance poses a catastrophic threat," said Davies. "If we don't act now, any one of us could go into hospital in 20 years for minor surgery and die because of an ordinary infection that can't be treated by antibiotics. And routine operations like hip replacements or organ transplants could be deadly because of the risk of infection.
"That's why governments and organisations across the world, including the World Health Organisation and G8, need to take this seriously."
There has been an 85% reduction in MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), which has meant that many large, acute hospitals have no more than two or three cases a year. But there are now 50 to 100 cases of gram-negative bacteria infection for every MRSA case, according to Professor Mike Sharland of St George's hospital in London, an adviser to the Department of Health on the use of antimicrobials (antibiotics and antivirals) in children.
"This is your own gut bugs turning on you. Between 10% and 20% are resistant to drugs. We do not yet know why they are on the rise, although some hospital procedures, such as the use of catheters, may be implicated. Many are in the very young or older population," he said.
"There is a lot of work going on through Public Health England and the Department of Health to try to work out why it has suddenly risen." In the second volume of her annual report, Davies calls for politicians to treat the threat of the new bugs and the failing antibiotics as seriously as they did MRSA. She wants action across government departments – involving the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in particular – because of the use of antibiotics in farming.
She is asking for the threat to be added to the government's strategic risk register, which will make it easier to raise as an issue abroad. Drug resistance is a global problem as the resistant strains of bacteria travel the world.
Multi drug-resistant TB and even some cases of extremely drug-resistant TB (only treatable with difficulty and with last-line antibiotics) have come to Britain.
Antibiotics fail because bacteria develop resistance to the drugs over time. In the decades after the invention of penicillin it did not seem to be a problem because drug companies developed new versions. But no new classes of drugs have been discovered since 1987 and the pipeline has now dried up.
Davies wants to find ways to give the pharmaceutical industry incentives to invest in finding new antibiotics. Most companies have given up because the search has become hard and, because resistance always develops, their lifespan is not long, so there is not much profit to be made.
The sort of incentives that could be offered have not yet been decided, but Davies praised the Innovative Medicines Initiative in Europe, a new public/private partnership. Other recommendations in the report include more education for medical students and qualified staff on the use of antibiotics and encouragement for women to be vaccinated where appropriate in pregnancy, for instance to protect their baby against whooping cough.
The Department of Health said it would shortly publish a five-year action plan to tackle the issues of antibiotic resistance raised in the report, which will include measures to ensure the drugs are prescribed only when they are needed.
Experts warmly welcomed the report. But Richard James, former director of the centre for healthcare associated infections at the University of Nottingham, pointed out that the UK could not solve the problem on its own and global action in countries where antibiotics are over-used, wrongly used and can sometimes – even in southern Europe – be bought over the counter, was vital.
"Anyone reading the report will realise that there are no magic bullets," he said. "The majority of the 17 recommendations relate to actions in the UK alone but there is acknowledgment of the requirement for the UK government to campaign for this issue to be given higher priority internationally."
He suggested exploring the use of a tax on antibiotic use and also measures to encourage the developments of alternatives by small biotechnology companies and universities, such as vaccines.
Laura Piddock, professor of microbiology and deputy director of the institute of microbiology and infection at the University of Birmingham and director of Antibiotic Action, said she was glad Davies was drawing political attention to the antibiotic discovery void.
"However, there are an increasing number of infections for which there are virtually no therapeutic options, and we desperately need new discovery, research and development; the UK is extremely well-placed to do basic discovery and research for new antibacterial molecules," she said.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said Davies was right to raise concern. "Antimicrobial resistance is a serious and growing problem," said chief executive Stephen Whitehead, noting the Innovative Medicines Initiative in Europe. "There are, however, pharmaceutical companies actively involved in researching and developing new antimicrobial medicines.
"But more still needs to be done and we believe that for there to be a continual supply of effective antibiotics, a comprehensive review of the R&D [research and development] environment and good stewardship are required urgently."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/11/superbugs-antibiotics-bacterial-diseases-infections

At least some of the Democrates are honest, but look at the pick, dont put your hand on Socail Security, but they dont have a problem with putting their  hands on your guns.

Schakowsky: Assault Weapons Ban 'Just the Beginning'

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a member of the Democratic Party’s leadership in the House of Representatives, suggested to Jason Mattera at a Feb. 13 women’s rights rally that plans for an assault weapons ban and private-sales background checks were only the beginning of a broader gun control agenda extending to handguns as well.
Schakowsky evidently did not recognize Mattera, a conservative video journalist and senior investigative reporter for Talk Radio Network, who infamously confronted Vice President Joe Biden in the Capitol. (Mattera introduced himself to Schakowsky by name but did not indicate that he was filming or that he is conservative.) She spoke to Mattera as if he were a fellow gun control enthusiast--and Mattera played along, eliciting answers about Schakowsky’s enthusiasm for gun control.

“We want everything on the table,” Schakowsky told Mattera. “This is a moment of opportunity. There’s no question about it.”
One poignant exchange was as follows:

Schakowsky: We’re on a roll now, and I think we’ve got to take the--you know, we’re gonna push as hard as we can and as far as we can.
Mattera: So the assault weapons ban is just the beginning?
Schakowsky: Oh absolutely. I mean, I’m against handguns. We have, in Illinois, the Council Against Handgun... something [Violence]. Yeah, I’m a member of that. So, absolutely.

In another exchange, Schakowsky proposed allowances for states and municipalities to ban guns--though such laws have been repeatedly rejected by the Supreme Court:

Mattera: We’ll never get a handgun ban with the Second Amendment as stated.
Schakowsky: I don’t know. I don’t know that we can’t. And there may be an allowance, once again, for communities--I have communities in my district that prohibited handguns within their borders. The rights of municipalities and states to view that as a sensible way to keep people safe--I don’t think it’s precluded.

When Mattera asked why legislators were not pressing for a handgun ban, given that most murders are committed with handguns, Schakowsky replied: “Because we’re not going to be able to win that. Not now.” She went on to explain why background checks were a useful interim policy, arguing that they would “address any kind of weapon.”
Schakowsky’s remarks about plans for broader gun control are not the first time she has revealed the long-term goal behind short-term policy debates. She has a tendency to do so when speaking to apparently sympathetic audiences. In 2009, she told a crowd that the goal of Obamacare would be to “put the private insurance industry out of business.”
Officially, Democrats--including Schakowsky--hew to the party line as laid down by the president, which pledges support for the Second Amendment and for gun ownership in rural communities where hunting and shooting are viewed as traditional pastimes.
Gun owners fear that the Sandy Hook-inspired gun control measures before Congress--none of which would have stopped the mass shooting at Sandy Hook--are a prelude to broader regulations, including the banning of handguns and the eventual registration and confiscation of firearms, despite earnest assurances by Democrats to the contrary.
The Democratic Party has taken a hard line on guns recently, with President Obama’s strategist, David Axelrod, joining New York mayor Michael Bloomberg in backing gun control enthusiast Robin Kelly over former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, who has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association, in the recent primary to replace former Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. of Illinois. Kelly has promised to be a “leader” in “banning guns.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/11/Schakowsky-Assault-Weapons-Ban-is-Just-the-Beginning